Brick-machine



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANCIS H. SMITH, 0F BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

BRICK-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 11,753, dated October 3, 1854.

To all 'whom t may concern.'

i Be it known that I, FRANCIS I-I. SMITH, of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Making Bricks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part thereof, in which*- Figure 1, represents a side elevation. Fig. 2, represents an end elevation. Fig. 3, represents an isometrical view of the machine. Fig. 4, represents a plan or top view` of the bed plate which is tted onto the sills at the bottom of the clay box, and into the center of which the shaft is stepped, (as also of the screw), and through'which the clay is forced into the molds as they (the molds) pass on the ways beneath. Fig. 5, represents a vertical section through the hub or step of the screw and plate, showing the wooden plug` therein. Fig. 6,represents a top view of the sectional screw which forces the clay into the molds. Fig. 7, represents a front view of one of the mold frames with a portion removed in order to show the movable or sliding bottoms of the molds, and the manner in which the brick is lifted out of the mold on said bottom by the vertical piston. Fig. 8, represents an end view of another method of constructing the mold frame, the sides being elongated at the lower edge so as to embrace a plate which serves as a bottom tb the whole frame said plate being made to slide on the ways, taking the mold along with it. Fig. 9, represents a top view of a broad knife, hung on pivots, to slice off the surplus clay from the mold. Fig. l0, represents a top view of the dust box.

Similar letters where they occur in the several gures denote like parts.

The nature of my invention consists rst, in the flat, square or triangular bar for pulverizing the clay. Also, the mode of stepping the shaft within the clay box, that is to say, the projecting hub on the bed plate with its wooden conical seat, in combination with the cavity in the stem of the screw, by means of which, the surrounding clay is excluded from the step, to prevent the wear, and the screw brought down near the bed plate to wipe as near as possible, without contactthus the throat of the screw gathers within itself a charge of clay which can not escape except through the openings of the bed plate into the molds beneath. Also the open portable mold frame with a projecting flange,

said mold resting on a single detached plate for a bottom, and so that when the mold is thrown on the iioor, the brick does not at the same time come in contact with the ground because the flanges interfere. This gives a concussion to the brick, just enough to give it a start, and it then slips easily from the mold.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the same with reference to the dra'wings. j

A, represents the frame of the' machine which does not differ essentially from others in present use, and therefore requires no particular description.

B is a cylinder or shaft having on its periphery a series of teeth in a spiral form (Fig. 2), which I call a crusher or lump breaker. It is placed in front of `the machine, and within a hopper E, which has a passage leading into t-he clay box F (the sides of the box being removed in Fig. 1)

Directly under the crushed B, and also within the same hopper E, there is placed a second shaft G, formed either of a flat, square, or triangular bar z', which I term a pulverizer. The oflice of the crusher is to break the lumps of clay into small particles, and t-he office of the pulverizer is to reduce the small particles to dust. The manner in which the crusher B, and pulverizer G, operate will be clearly seen in Fig. 2. The clay is introduced into the hopper and thence passes down between the pulverizer, and the back of the hopper, and enters the clay box F. The object in having the teeth of the crusher B, placed around the shaft in a spiral form is to prevent several teeth acting upon a lump at the same time, as 4great power would be required to' drive the crusher if this were so. The spiral form allows one tooth only to act upon the clay at the same time. The crusher B, should move about one hundred revolutions, and the pulverizer G, about six hundred `revolutions per minute, which reduces the clay into dust. In this state on entering the clay box F, it unites immediately with a jet of water I, brought through a hose from a reservoir.

J, is a vertical shaft placed in the center fof the clay box F, having thereon at its lower end a segment of a large 'screw thread D -(a separate view of which is seen in Fig. 6).

Directly above the screw thread, and on thel same shaft J, are placed a series of knives K, (Figs, l, 3,) which temper the clay as the shaft revolves. f

M, is the bed plate fitted at the bottoni of the clay box F. It is 'stationary and represented in various positions in the drawings, and may have any suitable number of" perforat-ions, corresponding however to the molds which pass on the railway beneath it. In the center of this bed plate M, the shaft J is stepped, and as the bed plate'is only about one and a fourth inches thick, I have added a hub so as to make the entire depth through for the step about three inches. was stepped into this hub without any other appliances, the two metals which'are always surrounded'by sand and water, would cut and Wear away directly. To prevent this I enlarge the hub, and having perforated it to about five inches in diameter, I fill the opening with wood into which the shaft J, is to be stepped, and in order to make the wood fast, and prevent its being forced through, I make the opening of the hub conical, the wood itself being the inverted frustum of a cone.

If the screw D, were seated on top of the hub, it would have a space of two inches between the lower flange of the screw andthe surface of the bed plate. In such case the molds would not fill. It is necessary that they should sweep as near together, without contact, as possible. I thereforev form a cavity or recess in the lower' part of the screw, so-as to inclose the lhub vwithin it, and this brings the lower flange of the screw within half an inch of the surface `of the bed plate, as seen in the several figures.

Fig. 4, is a top view of the bod plate and screw. Fig. 5, is a vertical central section through the same, showing the projecting hub a, the conical seat o, filled with wood, the stem c of the screw I), the step c,` for the shaft'J, and the screw with its lower edge or flange close to the surface of the bed plate.

N, are the mold frames (Fig. 7); each mold has a separate or lsliding. bottom o, which rest upon flanges placed at the inner lower edges of the mold-these plates also serve as a bottom to the clay box F. The molds are moved upon the ways O, and pass directly under the bed plate M, where they are filled by the operation of the screw D, as before mentioned.

S, isa box with a reticulated wire bottom filled with dust, and hung on hinges. VA shake of this box serves to dust the molds. (Fig.A 10 lrepresents the dust box.)

In front of the bed plate M, is fastened a plate g, regulated by set 'screws to scrape the surface of theniolds, and as this does not entirely remove it, a second plate, or broad knife T (Figs. 2, 3, 9) hung on pivots at the If the shaft backr corners which regulates itself by its own weight, and this slices 0E the surplus Y clay from the surface of the molds.

As the molds pass from under the broad 'knife,'tliey are Vbrou glit.y immediately over the pistons z, h. (Figs. 2, 7,) set in a frame or -cross bari U, the ends of which fit in grooves -infthe legs V, V.

Underneath the cross bar, are cams WV, W, hungtupon a shaft X, which has'a lever H (Figs. 1, 2, 3) attached to it at one end. By operatingV the lever. the cams will raise the cross bar and with it the pistons, and thepistons in turn actingV on the plates or bottoms o, lift the brick outv ofthe molds; the plates and brick are then passedi onto a car or. barrow, wheeledtothefdrying.

floor, and there set on edge to dry, inthe acti of doing thistlie plates drop o', andare brought back to be returned to the empty mold;

Fig., 8, shows a mold frame: ofdiiferent, construction-it has no sliding bottoms, but one plate K., extendingacrossthe machine from rail to railandforming, a bottom for, the wholeframe. The flanges m, m extend below the sides ofthe mold so as to embracetheplate, andv allmove along the ways together.

chine. vThen thezmold is thrown on the floor, the briclndoes not come immediately ony the ground, as in other molds, because the ianges intervene whichy are about an inch' broad. This gives a concussion to the brick,`

at their lower extremities whichJacts*against thenioldsrand forces them along the ways, by means of thevibrating rockfshaft, which alternately moves the `whole trainlof molds and leaves roomk to place an empty mold'on1 the ways. If itf were. not for the roller,.the

motionof the lever invdescribing thearc of a:

circle, would lift the molds off fromtli'e rail, butthe turning.l of the roller. prevents this.-v

I-Iaving thus fully describedithe nature of my invention what Iclaimfthereinas new anddesire to secure byLetters Patent isv l. Theflat, square,.or triangular bar for vpulverizing the clay, substantially, as described.v

2. I also claim in contradistinction from al metallic step, a step c'omposedof woodandi iron combined, substantially as, andforl the purpose, .above set :forth L and described.

The mold itself'is lifted off and borne to the yard, leaving the plate Kf, to be4 returned'to the ways at the back of the ma 3. I also claim the open portable mold being just sucient to give it a start, when frame with a projecting flange, said mold it slips easily afterward from the molds, resting on a single detached plate for a botsubstantially as described.

tom, and so that When the mold is thrown F. H. SMITH. 5 on the floor, the brick does not at the same lVtnesses:

time come in contact with the ground be- WM. H. HAYWARD,

cause the anges interfere-the concussion L. M. BENNETT. 

